Occupy SF has been distorted, in my view, by geography. Camping out at 101 Market, the site of the SF Federal Reserve, was a good idea on paper, but doesn't really work practically. There's no real place to occupy—it's not a park or plaza but just an ordinary strip of sidewalk. Easy to bust, easy to isolate. Isolation seems to be taking a toll. In addition to a fair amount of Silicon Valley libertarianism and individualist anarchism junk on the signs, two of the campers decided that a good action would be to fashion a pair of fishing poles, hook dollar bills and dreamcatchers from them, and taunt commuters by lowering the money into the stairwell of the BART. "We want to give something back!" they said as they waved their fishing lines. "Catch that dollar! Catch that dream! Jump for it!" That's pretty much the exact opposite of building a broad-based movement of either "the 99%" (which would include most millionaires) or even of working people.
Had the camp been sited at Civic Center, I think some of these problems would have either vanished or at least been drowned out by more useful activities. Occupy Oakland, luckily, seems to be taking off and is doing very well.
On the plus side as far as the city goes, there was a pretty decent march on the Financial District today. Not the Occupy crowd, I noticed, but then again, they are occupying, after all. I only caught the tail end. Here are some pics from outside Wells Fargo.
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NO U!
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Cultural pluralism. The speaker was also bilingual. I saw some Chinese-language signage as well.
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There's always someone with a big American flag at these things. More interesting to me was his anti-war anti-Obama Obama shirt. Wave the flag all you want, you're clearly a lazy illegal alien Communist who wants to rape the baby Jesus! After all, you've already stepped out of line.
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Another interesting sign.
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This guy is everywhere. There's also a fat version of him I see around sometimes.
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GET A JOB!
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These cats brought the noise, the ruckus, and the funk.
Good job all around. But what's next...?
Had the camp been sited at Civic Center, I think some of these problems would have either vanished or at least been drowned out by more useful activities. Occupy Oakland, luckily, seems to be taking off and is doing very well.
On the plus side as far as the city goes, there was a pretty decent march on the Financial District today. Not the Occupy crowd, I noticed, but then again, they are occupying, after all. I only caught the tail end. Here are some pics from outside Wells Fargo.
NO U!
Cultural pluralism. The speaker was also bilingual. I saw some Chinese-language signage as well.
There's always someone with a big American flag at these things. More interesting to me was his anti-war anti-Obama Obama shirt. Wave the flag all you want, you're clearly a lazy illegal alien Communist who wants to rape the baby Jesus! After all, you've already stepped out of line.
Another interesting sign.
This guy is everywhere. There's also a fat version of him I see around sometimes.
GET A JOB!
These cats brought the noise, the ruckus, and the funk.
Good job all around. But what's next...?